San Luis Potosi

Ahhhh! As the wind died down, we made a hasty exit from the Hotel Hacienda del Bosque, bright and early Wednesday morning and headed farther east to another, much larger silver city, San Luis Potosi (Population - 700,000+). We had heard mixed reviews about SL Potosi - maybe not as welcoming as Zacatecas is to tourists from the North - but, we were ready for an afternoon of exploring Centro, following our late morning arrival at Hotel Quintas San Jorge, situated near the small town of Enrique Estrada, about 5 miles out on the highway north of the city, toward the cities of Saltillo and Matehuala. We received vague instructions in espanol from our hotel host for bus transportation into Centro, and understood this much: TWO buses - first Central; then Centro - 5 pesos (50 cents) per bus. Exactly WHERE we made the transfer, we were not sure. No problema! We assumed our "no guts, no glory" attitude and crossed over to the other side of the carreterra to what looked like a bus stop. Larry flagged down a nice, luxury bus coming from the North (probably from the city of Matehuala); we boarded the full-to-capacity bus and immediately became the "main attraction" - the only gringos on the bus. Our amused driver responded to our VERY broken Spanish request to be let off at the right spot to catch the next bus to Centro. A nice lady directed us around the corner to a spot marked with a "Transito Urbano" sign, then motioned us onto the next yellow bus into Centro, and acted as our temporary tour guide once we arrived downtown, waving us in the right direction. With map in hand, we slowly found our way around to the different plazas and admired the incredible, ornate architecture of the structures such as the basilica, built during the Spanish occupation. A number of streets were blocked off to car traffic, which made exploring a lot easier. Contrary to reports of cool reception to tourists, we were approached in a plaza by some local folks, who offered (in English) to help us find our way around. Overall, we found the people to be quite friendly and welcoming.
Our return trip to our home on wheels in Enrique Estrada was not so successful . . . The bus from Centro deposited us in front of a very intimidating bus terminal (Central de Transportacion). There were LOTS of people and MANY lines and COUNTLESS luxury, long-distance busses waiting to depart, beyond a gate monitored by a security guard. Though this system seemed to be working very efficiently for the local folks, we were baffled by it all and decided to return to the street to hail a cab. With evening approaching, and not confident of our negotiating power for the fare, we ended up paying 200 pesos ($20) for the ride back to our hotel. YEOW!
Our camper accommodations were very pleasant - away from carreterra (freeway) noise - parked behind the hotel next to the (empty - it's winter!) swimming pool.
San Miguel de Allende, one of our favorite (and much smaller) cities is our next destination, so we made an early start Thursday morning.